What’s the best way to build your brand?

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

Assuming that you have deep pockets and a lot of patience, growing a recognized brand isn’t difficult…spend heavily across all mediums with consistent, creative, on message advertising while simultaneously conducting an aggressive public relations campaign. Avoid controversy, maintain a high likeability factor, be a business of character that engenders trust and confidence on the part of your target market(s), produce a quality product or service at a competitive price point and provide great customer service.

The description above paints the perfect illustration of why branding is one of my favorite topics…It is complex. While the illustration above is true in every sense, unless you are a very large enterprise it is unlikely that you have the time, money, staffing or external professional relationships to execute a brand management strategy such as the one outlined above.

So what’s the best way to build a brand if you’re not a Fortune 500 company? Be very, very smart…Unfortunately I’m not kidding. If your business isn’t one of the deep pocketed companies capable of executing a strategy like the one mentioned above then you must understand how to cost effectively appropriate and deploy resources and talent, as well as apply leverage, velocity and economies of scale to your particular company and its corresponding market in a manner that still produces results. The simple truth of the matter is that building brand equity with limited resources is one of the most difficult things to accomplish in the business world.

The following items constitute the basic tenants of branding, which if incorporated into your brand management strategy will help build a solid brand regardless of the size of your company or your ad budget:

1. Treat your brand as an asset not an afterthought…If building brand equity is not a key strategic focus for your executive team don’t be surprised if your brand remains in stealth mode;

2. Never sacrifice quality…Your products, services, leadership, management, culture, customer service, communication, etc. must all reflect high standards of quality. Quality equals value in the eyes of the consumer and as a result often corresponds into justifying price premiums;

3. Know your market…make sure you understand the needs and desires of you customers/clients and do everything possible to satisfy them.

4. Understand the competition…Creating competitive separation is a must. Without strong and clearly recognized competitive value propositions you will forced into the commodity market of competing on price points alone.

5. Choose the right mediums…If you don’t have the luxury of being able to spend across mediums select the medium that will give the most frequency and reach at the lowest cost. Put simply spend your money where you get the biggest bang for the buck, and;

6. Be consistent…Consistency in all things and throughout the value chain is critical. Continuity should flow from vision to mission to strategy, to tactics to process. Mixed messaging or practices has killed many a brand.

If you’re looking for more detailed information on the subject of branding please download our branding white paper.